Environmental Cleanup

A controversial quarry proposal in Lower Milford Township, stalled for more than a decade by a costly and contentious legal battle, will get a public airing by state environmental officials on June 3. The Department of Environmental Protection has scheduled a 6 p.m. public hearing to take testimony on an application by Geryville Materials Inc. of Montgomery County for a mining permit at a proposed 127.6-acre quarry at Kings Highway and West Mill Road. The hearing will be held at the township building, 7607 Chestnut Hill Road. Residents will have a chance to provide testimony. "This is an opportunity for residents to provide feedback to the department regarding the proposed...

Related "Environmental Cleanup" Articles

A controversial quarry proposal in Lower Milford Township, stalled for more than a decade by a costly and contentious legal battle, will get a public airing by state environmental officials on June 3.
The Department of Environmental Protection has...

The visit from environmental inspectors had the nerve-rattling effect of an IRS audit.
Three U.S. Environmental Protection Agency staffers and a pair of engineers from Colorado spent two days in Manor Township, Lancaster County, poring over page after...

Northampton Generating Co. has asked state regulators to significantly increase the limit on the amount of lead it can emit into the atmosphere.The company's power plant, at 1 Horwith Drive in Northampton on the border with Allen Township, burns primarily...

More than any president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Barack Obama has seen his signature programs blocked or impeded by the courts. In the latest episode, a federal appeals court in New Orleans heard arguments Friday about what to do about his...

A Trenton-based law firm is investigating whether to file a class-action lawsuit against IESI Bethlehem Landfill for a noxious odor Lower Saucon residents believe is emanating from the site.
Residents in the Steel City area received a letter from...

The state Department of Environmental Protection sent a letter to Lower Saucon Township, saying it will evaluate IESI Bethlehem Landfill's gas-collection system and ground covering to determine if they could be contributing to an odor residents believe is...

TRENTON, N.J. — Details of New Jersey's proposed $225 million settlement with Exxon Mobil over pollution around refineries in Linden and Bayonne were posted online Monday, starting the clock on a legal process that will stretch into June and giving...

Pennsylvania is burdened with a staggering amount of coal ash. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's much-anticipated national coal-ash rule came out late last year. While this first ever coal-ash rule is an important first step, it is a timid one....

For the second time in as many years, Pennsylvania's efforts to reduce agricultural pollution damaging the ecological health of Chesapeake Bay have received failing grades.
The latest report, by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said the bay...

Pennsylvania environmental regulators are planning to create a collaborative task force to develop ways to "plan smarter," as companies build tens of thousands of miles of pipelines in the next decade to bring Marcellus Shale natural gas to...

It is disappointing that Sen. Casey and Sen. Toomey introduced legislation to exempt waste coal plants from important clean air safeguards designed to protect public health ("Toomey-Casey amendment on waste coal power plants fails in Senate")....

The discovery in a Center Valley home last fall of the highest radon reading ever in Pennsylvania has its roots in a mystery that started in Berks County almost 30 years ago.For Brian Redmond, professor of geology and chemistry in Wilkes University's...

HARRISBURG — The pleasantries are over at the state Capitol.
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and the Republican-controlled Senate locked horns Thursday — two days into his first term — after Wolf fired a last-minute appointee by his Republican predecessor and...

Ross McLennan is old enough to remember when the Lehigh River was a cesspool of a waterway.
Before the Clean Water Act of 1972 was passed, the Lehigh was a repository for everything from coal silt to industrial waste to raw sewage, which deprived the...

The state Department of Environmental Protection released what it says is the most thorough study conducted of radioactive materials associated with oil and gas extraction on Thursday.In January 2013, the DEP announced it would take a close look at...

Pennsylvania's two U.S. senators are pushing to exempt waste coal power plants — like those in Northampton, Carbon and Schuylkill counties — from a pair of recent federal pollution rules.
The proposal from Republican Pat Toomey and Democrat Bob Casey...

Chemical plants, coal mines, power plants, steel mills and oil refineries, and even the maple syrup industry must disclose their releases of hazardous pollutants on the federal Toxic Release Inventory.
But the rapidly expanding natural gas-drilling...

On weekday evenings and weekend afternoons each fall, hundreds of high school athletes can be seen kicking up dust, dragging opponents to the ground and otherwise rolling around on athletic fields across the Lehigh Valley.
In many of those stadiums and...

Concerned residents filled the meeting room at the Upper Saucon Township Municipal Building on Thursday night to learn more about how to detect, and mitigate, what state and federal officials are calling extremely high levels of radon in Center Valley...

John Oelbracht has managed the Westwood Generation power plant in western Schuylkill County for 10 years. It's more than a job to him — it's an undertaking to clean up the environment while producing power for Pennsylvania homes.
"We're on something...